Tom Baker Season 12 Blu-ray

Some online retailers now have a listing for: TOM BAKER the complete 1st season!!! It looks as though the BBC will be testing the waters with the 4Th Doctor and continue on with more classic doctors should sales prove rewarding... The Sylvester McCoy years complete collection was released in Germany as a Limited 1500 copies set (region free) I am assuming in order of release should Tom sell well Pertwee and Davis would be next, but who knows. If anything at 59.99 this is an excellent way to get Classic Who hard copies for anyone who either doesn't have them yet or the Wise Collector who would love to get their hands on backup discs for a great price! Not to mention they will be in box sets!

I will post cover art the moment they release official cover unless someone beats me to it😀

Ohhh yeahhhhh...I forget WhoNA posted about this before Christmas....looks like a March 20th release.

https://whona.forumotion.com/t3263-new-dvd-release-dates#220050

Totally slipped my mind.  Must've been the eggnog.

I wonder if, or how many of, the DVD special features will be imported over to the blu release...?

I will get this but I'm curious about it being "blu ray"

I thought they could not convert video tape to blu?

But no matter I would get this. It would also save space!!

I'm assuming its just a direct port of the dvds to blu ray. No actual HD.

Will have to see once someone out there finally posts specs on this release.

There are "SD" blu-rays out there. Don't ask me why, but they're there.

For TV series, it's a good idea as you could get 5 full DVD9's on a single BD.

IN R2 land you can also get the 8th Doctor TV move as a Blue Ray DVD but its also been up converted from SD to BD so I don't see the point if you have the original DVDs on the shelf

DVD being much more limited than BD, I would hope that a BD release would do away with any pixellation or whatever it's called.  I hope these sets aren't just a transfer of the DVD to a BD.  And I'm kind of mad that I bothered to grab a bunch of titles in the past couple years trying to play catch-up since they started going out of print.

Well I can tell you BBC World Wide America is NOT remastering everything from the original elements for a Blue Ray release. That would involve rescanning all the individual film sequences (where available in HD). They are simply upscaling the DVD Masters to Blue Ray. They would also need to have accesses to all the original elements that are in the UK and with various collectors who donated a lot of the film sequences back to the Doctor Who Restoration Team when the DVD release was being produced

to me it seems bleak either way.

1) fans that dont have any DW and want to start

2) fans that have them, but are willing to swap out to save space (assuming extras are included in the blus)

3) fans that have some on dvd, but would prefer series sets with blu


for fans that have them all already, i dont think many would be willing to double dip just to save space (i personally love to see rows and rows of videos myself)

i would think most die hard fans that would want them already have them all by now... so sales are mostly gonna be based off of fans that dont have any, or are not close to being complete.

even then... theres just no guarantee that we will get every season for every doc. if this release flops, so much for that. we might get all of tom, but once a less popular doc starts, chances are greater the blu line will collapse.
they put out avengers series 5 on blu... then, nothing. so much for trying to get a complete run of Emma much less the other series.

for me, ive been getting the UK releases, since they are so much cheaper (and all still in print). still have about 100 to go... but im not gonna stop those and go all in on these new blus. i will get the blu and see how it looks, but if the blu line doesnt have the extras, or it comes to a premature end... i still have the dvds and can sell off the blus.

If they release all of Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee then I will be completely satisfied. I would love these on Blu-ray as a second set of backups. (Already own everything except the Two doctors, I refuse to pay more than $100.00 for an episode) I will purchase every one of the Blu-ray sets They offer... As well as keep my dvd sets...on a completely different note, maybe one day someone will write some software that automatically takes grainy images and tightens them to sharper definitions. If i had the time and money I would love to scan every episode and break it down into 24 frames a second, then I would hand draw over each frame in gray scale and stack them on top each other and rescan them together...

One of my close friends loves Doctor Who but would not spend the $$$ for the DVD releases, figuring that complete-season sets would be released eventually.

My sense is that these releases are for this kind of viewer---very happy with the episodes themselves and maybe some commentaries, no need for other extras, and a lot less space to store them. For me, I could not imagine having all those gorgeous black and white R1 spines saying hello to me every day after work. But I'll probably buy at least the first Tom Baker blu-ray season, just to see what they include in the set.

I have found pricing for season 1 to be between $60 & $70 dollars for the set... Not bad price at all in comparison to original individual story sales prices:) ... Recommended MSRP, although that just may be a rumour...

and Toms first season was only 20 episodes, a 26 episode season box set might cost even more, who knows?

The date has been bumped to 10/2/2018...not sure if we will see this now.

Who North America wrote:

The date has been bumped to 10/2/2018...not sure if we will see this now.

Why does North America keep getting screwed over on classic releases?

First the existing releases are allowed to go OOP, then the Shada Special Edition gets pushed off until next fall, there's still no NA release date for the Enemy of the World Special Edition, and now they push off this release.

...we're not JUST all about Tennant and Smith over here...  

Sadly Doctor Who for what its worth never had the selling power of Star Trek or the X Files here in the USA, heck even back in the 1980's when it was at the height of its popularity in the USA 90% of the merchandise was imported from the United Kingdom. The vast majority of merchandise back then was the TARGET Books, and Doctor Who Monthly. Everything else was produced in such low numbers.

Then we started to get VHS releases in the USA and the distributors changed over the years , we had Playhouse Video, FOX and I think another as one distributor after an other gave up on the series.

Keith and Janey probably re more versed in the business end of the VHS releases in the USA than I am can correct me if I was wrong above.

Sadly this is why I bought 90% of the Doctor Who VHS tapes from the United Kingdom starting in 1988 on PAL format. I did get a few NTSC releases threw the 1990's. Then when DVD releases came along around 2000 I invested in a multi region DVD player (at the time they were VERY expensive) and have every classic series DVD from R2 and R4. In fact if I go on line at retailers in Australia I can still get an R4 copy of many classic who DVDs. Heck in the UK I can still get an R2 copy cheap as dirt.

I want to replace some stuff with Blue Ray version a classic non Who example is The X Files I bought them when they first came out on DVD 17 years ago and cost like $90 for a whole season, Is there really anything to be gained if I buy the BD version, I do know they chopped the screen on the first 4 or 5 season to make them widescreen which is a no no for me.

But I remember when the members of the Doctor Who Restoration Team used to tell us there is nothing to be gained by upgrading PAL 625 video to HD. SO why spend the money, I know The X Files was shot on film but its effects are video edited.

I just early this morning finished watching the BBC 2 Science fiction series 1990 staring Edward Woodward that we shot exactly like Doctor Who back in the day (1977/78) I watched on my up scaling BD player. I would not see the benefit of re buying this on R2 Blue Ray (assuming it was available on BD)

I've seen 6 retailers with a March 20th date and 1 with an October 2nd date... The one with an October date has been like that for a while. Perhaps different retailers will be receiving stock earlier?

Bob1963 wrote:

But I remember when the members of the Doctor Who Restoration Team used to tell us there is nothing to be gained by upgrading PAL 625 video to HD.  SO why spend the money, I know The X Files was shot on film but its effects are video edited.

The Restoration Team has said that for North American viewers there could be a minute improvement with Blu Ray.  First, theoretically a Blu Ray disc would have a higher MPEG/minute business, ie it's not as compressed to fit on a Blu Ray disc rather than a DVD.  That all hopes that they don't try to squeeze a whole season on a single Blu Ray causing horrible compression problems.  

Secondly and more importantly for North American viewers, anyone who has purchased Region 1 DVD had the 625 line PAL reduced to 525 line NTSC.  In theory a Blu Ray wouldn't have to take that step down and Region 1 DVD owners would see a small picture improvement by upgrading.  Any additional Restoration work done (if any) would improve on some episodes previously remastered 15 years ago.

But since Bob has all Region 2 and 4 DVD to begin with he's still not getting much of a reason to upgrade.  I purchased all Region 1 to support the line (except for edits to The Chase) so I'm still pondering if I should make this purchase.  I'm leaning towards trying the first boxset depending on what is included and remastered.

And anyone who purchased the series in any way helped support the line. Buying Region 2 DVDs, iTunes, etc. Buying Region 1 DVD isn't the only way to support Doctor Who, but if I wanted to see discs on the shelf at my local retailers it's something I had the luxury to do. I may get my Marvel movies, DC Animated movies, Star Trek, etc. at the used DVD shops, but I think Warner Home Video takes notice when I purchase a new release from someone like Who North America.

Anything you purchase helps Doctor Who, just don't steal it from torrent sites and then complain that you can't find any merchandise or they stop making the show.

Another reason the blu-ray might not necessarily be an upgrade is that it is highly likely that any such release will be mastered at 24fps, meaning the sound/picture will run 4% slower than it should. They did this on the New Series series 1-4 blu-ray upscales and pitch-corrected them, but I'm told that people who have heard both versions will say that even if the voices sound pitch-corrected that the music is still "off".

Also, if they do these 24fps (progressive), they might lose their original "shot on tape" (interlaced) look. And, if these releases are only for the USA market as has been hinted, we have no reason to automatically assume they'll upscale the PAL masters. They might just go ahead and upscale the NTSC ones.

That is my main concern for North American viewers if they take the NTSC Master and work from it they are starting 100 lines down from the UK version. I simply just do not see FOX or whom ever is releasing them in the USA taking the time to go and get the R2 PAL masters from BBC Worldwide in the UK to upgrade them here in the USA.

Perhaps Ill be wrong but I just don't see my self buying Classic Dr. Who on BLUE RAY after I have already bought it twice once on VHS and once on DVD

Amazon moved the date to 10/2/18 as well.

Apparently the UK release will be on June 11th.  Here's the probably-official blurb that was on a retailer's site:

Quote :

Tom Baker's acclaimed first season as the Fourth Doctor, originally aired in 1975/76. With his best friend Sarah Jane Smith and new companion Harry, the Doctor pits his wits against a giant robot, the insect Wirrn, Cybermen, Sontarans and Daleks!

Twenty episodes, specially restored for Blu-Ray and packed with new and old special features. Build your own archive of classic Doctor Who seasons with this six-disc special ‘limited edition packaging’ boxset.

Existing Extras
Existing bonus material from the original DVD’s

Brand New Bonus Features
Brand new one hour candid interview – ‘Tom Baker in conversation’
Behind The Sofa – classic clips from season 12 viewed by Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe, Louise Jameson, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Sadie Miller.
New making-of documentaries for ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’
Optional brand new updated special effects for Revenge of the Cybermen
Genesis of the Daleks – omnibus movie version
The Tom Baker Years VHS release on disc for the first time
Production archive material and scripts from the BBC Archives
Some other archive treats to be announced

Now to wonder about the picture & sound quality.  "Specially restored for Blu-ray" sounds promising!  I just don't like that the packaging shown (granted, "not final") shows the upcoming new logo.  It isn't terrible, but I'd rather see the classic diamond or the 1970 logo that was used before for the classic series.

Nice set of extras sadly I am not going to quadruple dip (PAL VHS omnibus, PAL VHS episodic and PAL R2 DVD release dip on this just to get another new interview with Tom Baker. As nice that it is he has now given so many interviews as well as being on the Big Finish CDs regularly. I have the last one he did for the DVD range on the Terror of the Zygons DVD Special (The one that came with the Character Options 5 inch figure of Tom dressed as the Third Doctor New special effect for Revenge of the Cybermen sounds nice but I am not going to get it. Now if it was released separately I might consider the one story with new special effects.

The Doctor Who Restoration Team did a good job finding all the available extras and releasing them on the main range as they came out.

Sorry to sound negative, I don't mean to and I hope it appeals to all who cant get the R1 and don't want to pay for the R2 DVDs, if it gets an R2 Blue Ray release I might give it a second thought after reading reviews and it goes on sale (like it eventually will)

Sticking on an omnibus version of Genesis of the Daleks (as seen on PBS) does not inspire me either.

Still for those who cant get the R1 DVD this may be a nice set, if the price drops (and it will in time) I might consider it but for now its a no for me